Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Mosul Campaign Day 163, March 28, 2017

The Iraqi forces (ISF) are implementing their new plan for
Mosul. The Golden Division continued their march along the western flank of the
Old City. They attacked
the Yarmouk and Maghreb neighborhoods. The unit claimed
it freed the former last week. The Federal Police on the other hand are
continuing their frontal attack upon the district moving into Midan,
Suq al-Shaareen, Qadhib
al-Ban, and a railway station. The police were making little headway into
the area due to its dense layout and strong defenses by the Islamic State. That
led to a revision of the battle plan, which now consists of the police holding
down the insurgents, while the Golden Division attacks them from the flank. This
highlights the development of the ISF’s ability to strategize and execute their
plans. These were things they were having problems with when the Mosul campaign
initially started, but they have since adapted.

The Islamic State was active as well. They assaulted
the Hashd lines west of the city. Inside Mosul they conducted
a counter attack in the Old City, and firedmortars onto at
least three neighborhoods leaving 5 dead and 11 wounded.

The United States is opening their investigation into the
Jadida incident. A U.S. commander announced
that a team arrived in Mosul to look into the matter. An official was quoted in
the New York Times that one building in Jadida collapsed days after the March
17 attack, which raised the possibility that IS blew it up. Residents disputed
that saying that an airstrike caused the building to come down. One survivor
said he and others were hiding in the basement of a house trying to avoid the
fighting when it was hit. The Islamic State has been herding people into their
fire positions to be used as human shields. Civilians on their own accord have
also sheltered in basements when the fighting comes to their neighborhoods.
Either of those scenarios or a mixture of both could account for the high
casualties reported.

The American military has not admitted to any changes
in the rules of engagement for its air strikes, but that there are far more of
them happening. The U.S. now has forward observers able to call in air support
without getting approval from headquarters.

The United
Nations and Amnesty
International both voiced concerns about the growing civilian casualties in
the battle for west Mosul. The U.N. recorded 307 civilian deaths and 273
wounded from February 17 when the campaign started up to March 22. From March
23-26 95 people were killed in four neighborhoods alone from shelling, IEDs,
car bombs and snipers. Amnesty International noted that not only are people suffering
from the insurgents, but Iraqi and Coalition artillery and airstrikes are
taking their toll as well. Earlier Human Rights Watch also complained
about the damage ISF using rockets, artillery and mortars were causing. West
Mosul is an extremely difficult battle space. The dense layout makes it
extremely difficult to avoid collateral damage especially when non-precision
ordnance is used. IS has switched its tactics. Before it would kick people out
of buildings it was using, only using civilians to cover their retreats. Now
they are forcing people to stay with them, again making it hard to avoid
civilian casualties. Finally, Baghdad told people to stay in the city because
they could not take care of them. The dilemma this caused in the fight was
apparent in east Mosul, and has only gotten worse in the west.

Medecins Sans Frontieres warned that many of the displaced
coming out of west Mosul are injured and overwhelming medical facilities. The
group noted that there are not enough ambulances to carry people out of the
city. Battlefield related injuries are also not the only things the group is
dealing with. Children have been treated for malnutrition as well, a sign of
the severe shortages the city is facing.

The United Nations reported
that the number of people leaving west Mosul decreased recently. From March
17-27 an average of 6,600 displaced (IDPs) reached the Hamam al-Alil screening
center. That was down from 11,200 per day from March 6-16. There are also
people coming back to Mosul as well. From March 24-26 for instance, 2,000 left
camps to head back to their homes. A small, but increasing number of IDPs are
being transported to Kurdistan rather than all of them staying at the ones
south of the city. The director of the Joint Crisis Coordination Center in
Kurdistan however warned
that all the camps in Irbil were full. There was space for several thousand in
Dohuk however, which is farther away. Finally, people in the Hamam al-Alil
camps complained
about overcrowding going on there. People are constantly moving in and out of
Mosul. This is motivated by a number of reasons from the fighting, to shelling,
to the lack of jobs and services, to the desire to check on their property.
This will continue for the foreseeable future as only half of west Mosul is
liberated.

SOURCES

AIN,
"Thirty Daesh were killed in a bomb attack west of Mosul," 3/28/17

Amnesty International, “Iraq: Civilians killed by airstrikes
in their homes after they were told not to flee Mosul,” 3/28/17

Iraq History Timeline

About Me

Musings On Iraq was started in 2008 to explain the political, economic, security and cultural situation in Iraq via original articles and interviews. I have written for the Jamestown Foundation, Tom Ricks’ Best Defense at Foreign Policy and the Daily Beast, and was responsible for a chapter in the book Volatile Landscape: Iraq And Its Insurgent Movements. My work has been published in Iraq via NRT, AK News, Al-Mada, Sotaliraq, All Iraq News, and Ur News all in Iraq. I was interviewed on BBC Radio 5, Radio Sputnik, CCTV and TRT World News TV, and have appeared in CNN, the Christian Science Monitor, The National, Columbia Journalism Review, Mother Jones, PBS’ Frontline, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Institute for the Study of War, Radio Free Iraq, Rudaw, and others. I have also been cited in Iraq From war To A New Authoritarianism by Toby Dodge, Imagining the Nation Nationalism, Sectarianism and Socio-Political Conflict in Iraq by Harith al-Qarawee, ISIS Inside the Army of Terror by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassahn, The Rise of the Islamic State by Patrick Cocburn, and others. If you wish to contact me personally my email is: motown67@aol.com